| GEORGIA BULLDOGS |
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| Seniors | ||
| Rachel Dickson |
VT UB BB FX |
|
| Sabrina Vega |
VT UB BB FX |
|
| Juniors | ||
| Marissa Oakley |
UB BB |
|
| Emily Schild |
UB BB |
|
| Sophomores | ||
| Sterlyn Austin |
|
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| Rachel Baumann |
VT BB FX |
|
| Rachael Lukacs |
VT UB FX |
|
| Mikayla Magee |
VT BB FX |
|
| Alyssa Perez-Lugones |
FX |
|
| Megan Roberts |
UB FX |
|
| Abbey Ward |
VT UB |
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| Freshmen | ||
| Amanda Cashman |
VT UB BB FX |
|
| Haley De Jong |
VT UB BB FX |
|
| Loulie Hattaway |
UB |
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| Soraya Hawthorne |
VT UB BB FX |
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FINAL SEASON RANKING
2019 – 8th
2018 – 7th
2017 – 12th
2016 – 6th
2015 – 9th
2014 – 5th
2013 – 6th
2012 – 11th
2011 – 9th
2010 – 13th
THE 2019 STORY
The 8th-place finish from 2019 ranks as a sort of middle-of-the-pack result in terms of how Georgia has fared in the post-Suzanne era. Not the best finish, but certainly not a disaster. The hope heading into the 2019 season—and throughout a season spent ranked in the 7-8 zone—would have been for Georgia to advance to nationals out of its home regional, and that’s exactly what happened. No more, but no less.
DEPARTED 2019 ROUTINES
Sydney Snead – VT, UB, BB, FX
Alexa Al-Hameed – UB
Sami Davis – FX
What was originally expected to be a four-routine loss from Snead became a six-routine loss after the early departures of Al-Hameed and Davis from the roster. In the grand scheme of other teams, this is still not a ton of routines for Georgia to replace in its 2020 lineups, though Snead’s presence was so essential in those lineups that her absence will be felt.
INCOMING GYMNASTS
Georgia has brought in a freshman class of four that should do what it has to do, among which at least De Jong, Hawthorne, and Cashman will see weekly competition time. There’s not necessarily the immediate AA star in this group, but as a collective, they should provide more new routines than Georgia has lost from 2019.
2020 PROJECTION
Georgia will get the job done in 2020. There’s not really enough new star power to envision a dramatic upswing in results compared to recent seasons, but the team should be able to maintain the level that we have come to expect, retain its place in the top half of SEC teams, and remain a contender for nationals, even if not an aggressive favorite for it. A reasonable choice, we’ll say.
VAULT
2019 Event Ranking: 4
| Lineup locks: Rachael Lukacs, Rachel Dickson, Mikayla Magee, |
| Lineup options: Abbey Ward, Sabrina Vega, Amanda Cashman, Rachel Baumann, Soraya Hawthorne, Haley De Jong |
Georgia has lost the anchor position Y1.5 from Snead, which is not great, but will look to make up for it with a combination of increased landing consistency from Dickson on her 10.0 start and the introduction of an upgraded 1.5 from Magee. Magee’s vault is lovely in the air, and as long as the landing comes along, she will return to this lineup with more scoring responsibility than was put on her leadoff full last season. Ideally, those Dickson and Magee vaults will support the presumed anchor DTY from Lukacs to bring in the lineup’s highest scores.
Ward joins the 10.0-start party with her Tsuk full that’s usually good for 9.8s, and while I always think “well, maybe they won’t need Vega’s full this year,” she always somehow gets 9.900s and is always therefore necessary to the lineup. I’d rank Cashman as the best freshman on vault and most likely to make the six, but Hawthorne will deliver an option that could see time. It shouldn’t be too hard to fill out a respectable vault lineup, and with those four 10.0 starts, the lineup will score well again, even if there’s no obvious replacement for Snead’s 9.950.
BARS
2019 Event Ranking: 11
| Lineup locks: Marissa Oakley, Rachel Dickson, Megan Roberts |
| Lineup options: Emily Schild, Haley De Jong, Sabrina Vega, Rachael Lukacs, Amanda Cashman, Abbey Ward, Mikayla Magee, Loulie Hattaway, Soraya Hawthorne |
Bars presents the most concern for Georgia. At least currently. I’ve listed a lot of routines here, but the fact that I have Sabrina Vega—who has never competed bars in college—listed as one of the top six options right now tells you where we stand with the last couple spots in this lineup. Tumbleweeds.
There’s strong scoring leadership in this group. We hope. Dickson will get big numbers, and Roberts was good for 9.850s in the leadoff position last season. Oakley is the most talented bars worker in the lineup and most 9.9y as long as she is in the correct number of pieces (1), which gets at some of the concern with this lineup. On talent, you’d also have Schild in there, but she has missed so much time and always seems to be injured (and didn’t appear at Red & Black), that it’s difficult to project contribution from her. And while Lukacs came into the final lineup last year, she’s going to get 9.7s for her normal hit, and Georgia doesn’t really want to have to use that score.
So it really feels like there are three routines returning and another three that need to be found. The most talented freshman on bars is Haley De Jong, who has lovely toe point potential and difficulty and is an essential figure for Georgia to bring along in order to full out a competitive six. Cashman is also a possibility for a 9.800 kind of routine, but the difficulty in coming up with three more names here is why Vega is suddenly adding bars in her senior year…and looking a likely option. Her routine at Red & Black was legitimately good, if very weirdly composed to get herself a 10.0 start. Some real deduction traps there, but it sure brings you back to 2011.
Georgia is also trying to develop routines for Abbey Ward and Mikayla Magee and walk-on Loulie Hattaway to find a full group for the lineup with the appropriate number of backups. We shall see.
BEAM
2019 Event Ranking: 9
| Lineup locks: Sabrina Vega, Rachel Dickson, Marissa Oakley, Rachel Baumann |
| Lineup options: Haley De Jong, Mikayla Magee, Soraya Hawthorne, Emily Schild, Amanda Cashman |
On beam, Georgia’s default returning roster looks to be the most robust, with only the leadoff routine from Snead departing and those important scores from Vega and Dickson and Oakley all returning. They’ll be joined by two sophomores who did well in 2019 and probably still have more to offer—Baumann and Magee. It’s a talented group, if a pretty terrifying one. You’re not confident they’re going to hit every time, but they’ll score well when they do.
My top two new nominees to come into the lineup are de Jong and Hawthorne. De Jong currently ranks as my pick because her leap positions on her switch to split combination are unimpeachable, which means she’s going to start from a higher potential score. But, I’d also like to see Hawthorne get into the lineup because she has some original elements like a kickover front from one knee, which she is retaining for her college routine. That makes for seven nominees you’d be very happy with in a lineup—and a few more to provide depth options—so Georgia doesn’t really have any business regressing on beam in 2020. This one should get better.
FLOOR
2019 Event Ranking: 9
| Lineup locks: Sabrina Vega, Rachel Dickson, Rachael Lukacs |
| Lineup options: Mikayla Magee, Rachel Baumann, Haley De Jong, Soraya Hawthorne, Megan Roberts, Alyssa Perez-Lugones, Amanda Cashman |
With Vega, Dickson, and Lukacs back, you can expect Georgia to stay comfortably competitive on floor. What I’m saying is, we’ll see those home meets that get into the 49.4s and 49.5s once again this season. The lineup does have two routines to replace, those from Snead and Davis, but plenty of options should exist for that task, the most important of which may come from returning sophomores rather than freshmen.
Magee couldn’t quite get the piked full-in down last season well enough get into the final floor lineup, but with another 2/3 of a year to work on it, there’s hope she can get into the six full time in 2020—probably as the chosen nominee to make up for Snead’s score. Megan Roberts will also provide an option this season, and Rachel Baumann went as high as 9.9 last season in ultimately overcoming some early season iffiness to make the final group.
With De Jong and Hawthorne currently providing viable double pike routines, Georgia has a comfortable group of 8 options that shouldn’t have to endure quite the same trials as last season in terms of finding people who can hit in those first two lineup spots. The level of those positions should improve, with the scores in the most important spots holding steady for the most part.
Why does Georgia always seem to have so many athletes retire from injury?
Only Davis this year. Al-Hameed quit. I think she was on the fence about gymnastics when she was verballed to Oklahoma, so not too surprised.
No they have had more than just a few in past few years: Ashley Foss, Gracie Cherrey, Jordyn Pederson, Sami Davis, Madison McPherson (walk-on. )
Yup. Just listed this year. 2018 was not a good year.
At this point I think Emily S. has more than a 50 percent chance of retiring due to the lingering/constant knee injuries
I think after Georgia’s First look a few thoughts. Sabrina Vega is a star. It is great to see her do bars, and may be option if others not reliable. Bars was a hot mess. Lots of missed handstands including shoot overs, several form breaks, and Rachael Luckacs is solid but her reverse Hecht barely skims the bar. Vault I was expecting more. Dickson has nice vault, Luckacs does a 2/1 but has issues on horse & legs in the air, I just do not think her vault should score above 9.85. Other vaults were just ok fulls, lack amplitude have form issues or pike down. I know some say they will add more 10.0 vaults, so will be interesting to see if this happens. Beam was good, and should be best event. Floor had Several good passes, but not finding a leap pass that can hit 180 for some is a problem.
I think Georgia is a middle of pack team. Nothing made me think they are on the rise To top 4 yet. Last year they were lucky to be at home for regionals where scoring was well…. inflated. I think they are a 6-12 place team. I think it will be really interesting to see how judging goes because several teams seem to be on Georgia’s level or even above and ready to get to nationals, but will judging be consistent across the country? Will Georgia continue to get those “home scores” that help their RQS?
I’m really hoping for a strong year for Georgia. Hoping Sabrina Vega can make a push in the all-around and for SEC Gymnast of the Year.
I wonder how Sabrina will do on bars this year. On one hand, she has form issues on the pak and didn’t hit any handstands. On the other hands, that BEAUTIFUL geinger, her being Sabrina Vega, and UGA homescoring, so I really don’t know what to expect with this.
It wasn’t just home scoring being an issue last season. Remember Baumann’s 9.925 on beam at Florida? I think, like Utah, they’re a team that would benefit from tighter scoring during the season to identify and sort out the built-in deductions before getting to Nationals.
Is there a link to Georgia’s first look meet?? I would love to see it but can’t seem to find any footage on you tube